Narcissism: A Solar Metaphor
The sun. It is the centre of our solar system. It generates a magnetic field strong enough to repel the majority of dangerous particles from the cosmos, shielding her captive planets. She is beautiful and has been worshipped throughout the centuries. She is fiery and destructive but also brings life – if you are in the right place. But that’s the thing. If you are in the right place. The Goldilocks zone. However, we are not as well-formed as the Earth, with its protective magnetic boundaries, balanced polarities and centrifugal force balancing out the gravitational pull. When we are, all is good. We can thrive and have a healthy life.…
My Fitness Journey: Running and Wellness
My fitness journey has been stop/start for years. I know it is essential to keep fit, raise the heart rate and push the body. It keeps things working in the long-term and helps restore the balance. The body was used to labouring in ancient times – the hunter/gatherer required us to be active – and the body is designed to deliver. But in today’s sedentary times where we have “the good life” (if we’re fortunate enough) we have to bolt on exercise to our regular daily routine. And that’s when it can feel like a chore and we find excuses not to do it. And that’s OK as long as…
Your Stand is Your Brand
Outstanding and pivotal. This book applies as equally to personal development as it does to business since Your Stand is routed in your own identity. I found it to be ‘the missing link’ in my personal journey and Patrick’s 5P Expansion Sequence is one which is easy to understand yet requires focused effort by the individual (or business team) to truly dig deep and understand your inner workings and then apply conscious choice to embrace your truth, instead of unconscious choice and operate with your conditioned choices which are often in conflict and, ultimately, lead to your lack of success in any or all areas of your life. The book…
Empath Awakening: How to Stop Absorbing Pain, Stress, and Negative Energy from Others and Start Healing
Another easily accessible read from Kara Lawrence which has the usual blend of helpful checklists as well as explorations of the key concepts of being empathetic. I like that Kara does not simply lay out what an empath is and how they function, but she contrasts this with the opposite personality types of ‘energy vampires’ which come in all shapes and sizes and also goes further to provide a shopping list of techniques you (the empath) can use to protect yourself from said ‘vampires’ and other external factors which can deplete your gifts. Here is an overview of the chapters in the book: Chapter One: Are you empathetic? Understanding these…
Toxic Magnetism: How & Why Empaths Attract Narcissists
This book grew on me the second time through. While it doesn’t go deep into aspects of empath or narcissism, it does provide an eloquent contrast between the two personality styles and why they attract each other. The frequent checklists to help you identify where you are and how you may be being affected are useful tools to help you gain clarity and regain inner strength to rise once more and move forward. The book takes you through the stages of a narcissist/empath relationship, including the steps you may have to take to get out. There is no magic bullet but, based on other books I have read on this…
A Question of Values. What are yours?
A ship in harbour is safe. But that is not what ships are made for. John A Shed There are a billion stars in the sky and there are a billion values you can follow. But if you set sail in your life without deciding which key stars you will follow in the sky you may find yourself lost at sea, running into heavy weather or even aground on the rocks or reefs of hostile shores. Our stars are not astrology, but our core values which are there to guide us on our path through life. Your values are your base program against which you test environments and make the…
The Three Questions: How to Discover and Master the Power Within You
I didn’t get into this book as much as I did The Four Agreements, partly because some of it has been covered in that book (as well as others I have read from Don Miguel Ruiz including The Fifth Agreement and The Five Levels of Attachment) and maybe because I thought the narrator did not have the gravitas to make the book sound as authentic as the previous works I mentioned. However, once we get into the three questions themselves, the use of analogies to relate how our psyche interacts with the world and so illuminates the answers to the questions is very interesting. There were many insights within the…
How to Become Extraordinary by Design
I seem to be immersed in the Mindvalley approach to living at the moment. I am studying an old Extraordinary by Design course which, I think, was supplemental material from when I bought the Code of the Extraordinary Mind when it was first released. It has taken me some time to get around to it! The course is broken into 12 modules, each reflecting the 12 areas of life we should all seek to improve ourselves in, set goals in, and seek balance in. To live a fulfilling life we should seek to balance the 12 areas and, by doing so, often find more opportunities arise and more abundance manifests…
The Daly Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
This review has been a long time in the making! The Daily Stoic contains 366 days of quotes from the great Stoic philosophers and a short analysis of each of them. You can take each day as its printed and study the quote and take from it what you will. It’s easy to slot into your daily or morning routine as it takes about 5-10 minutes at most to read, review and apply the daily lesson. Some of the lessons may seem obvious, while some may be more profound. Even the books recommends you journal: At the end of each day, he would ask himself variations of the following questions:…
Man’s Search for Meaning
This is a book of two halves. The first part is an autobiographical account of Frankl’s experience in the concentration camps, weaving his psychotherapy insights and discoveries into the narrative. The second part of the book is a synopsis of logotherapy psychotherapy. Personally, I found the second half of the book somewhat dry and the periodic references to other works (including page numbers), while inarguably complete in terms of scientific papers, lost something in the narrative of an audiobook. Also, there is specialised (and long) terminology which might be better read so you have time to re-read the words and gain a fuller understanding. This is why I dropped a…
Transformational Life & Business Coaching by Edward Terry
